This book is wildly frustrating because there's a skeleton of a good book here, something that certainly transcends the typical spate of YA paranormal romance fare it gets lumped in with, but despite the fact that Carrie Ryan is a perfectly serviceable technical writer, the book is bogged down with contrivance and utterly insubstantial, personality-free characters who constantly make inexplicable choices in the service of the author's attempt to belabor her themes, motifs, and metaphors.

This book is completely lifeless (no pun intended) and I can only imagine how good it might have been had someone bothered to instill any genuine emotion or soul into it.